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Topic: Swirly Vase??? (Read 1629 times)

Hi, I am hoping that someone may be able to tell me something about this little chap! It is 13 cms tall, quite heavy for it's size, the base shows wear of a few decades I think. I would be grateful for any opinions. Thanks for your time. Jen

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Thank you so much for posting this picture! I hope we might get somewhere with it.

I have a cylinder vase, I've had it for ages, that is the same pattern. When I bought it, I was fairly new to collecting Mdina, but I reckoned I had a "feel" or an "eye" for it, and I thought this was a piece. With a bit more experience, I started to doubt this pattern, as I never saw it again (until now!) although I was convinced that the red in it was the exact, proper shade of red. (a bit like something in the butcher's!).

Your vase and mine are both Maltese glass shapes, heaviness and colours. Seeing your vase however, makes me think they might be early Mtarfa, rather than Mdina. I have noticed in this necked style of vase, Mdina's neck is fairly straight, while Mtarfa necks tend to have a slight bulge in them, and your bulges a little.

Thanks for you replies, I have only ever seen two pieces of Mdina close up. and tho they felt and looked similar to this, the bases of the items were a lot more modern looking, also both pieces were signed, there is no signiture on this.

I was going to say 'Empoli', but with the thickness of the glass, size, and the flat base I would say Mdina or Mtarfa

In my nearest glass collectibles shop about 30% of Mdina pieces are not signed - from the blue/green, through tortoiseshell, and pink with blue strapping - I don't know why so much was unsigned, there are axe-head vases and random strap bottles, Mtarfa also seem to leave pieces unsigned, there will be plenty of people out there with Mtarfa pieces that have the label but no signature!

I think I recognise your piece as being Mtarfa from an agate range they did in a few different colour ways, I am sure the pink colour was popular.

I can't see it being Mdina because the main body is opaque white, that is more a Mtarfa early to mid 1980s thing

I think you can still see similar pieces amongst a lot of new very colourful items on their website - you can also email them and ask about your vase, they have been going since 1975